center yourself & find your delight
and call Bill Cassidy!
nah brah business:
This week I launched my new newsletter, Chronic Female Thoughts! It’s about being a woman, being out in the world, and finding power, rage, joy, and peace at the intersection of the personal and the political. I’m kicking it off with a monthly series called Twenty Years Ago Today, which is a look back on the 20th anniversary year of Katrina. It will be published on the 29th of every month in remembrance of where we were twenty years ago today. I published the first one on Wednesday! Go read it! You might like it! Not to brag, but it made my dad cry.
Sign up for the new monthly zoom series where we will get you prepared for the political shitstorm ahead and strengthen our community ties outside of the tech bro fuck boi social media circle jerk complex (more info below)
The first Political Shitstorm Prep will be held on February 11 at 7 pm.
The first Community Zoom will be held on February 12 at 7 pm.
Ok, this was the plan this week: I was going to wake up on Wednesday and write you a newsletter about how we can’t be reactionary right now. About how we can’t pop off about every little thing we hear and run ourselves into the ground. I was going to be all sublime and centered and chill and tell yall that the plan is to stand strong. That we need to just be cool.
But then I woke up on Wednesday and OH MY GOD THERE’S A FEDERAL FREEZE AND THIS IS GOING TO RUIN SO MANY LIVES AND LOOK AT ALL THESE ICE RAIDS AND THESE POOR FAMILIES ARE BEING RIPPED APART AND WHAT THE FUCK DID PETE HEGSETH JUST SAY AND OH FUCK I ACCIDENTALLY JUST HEARD DONALD TRUMP’S VOICE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE ELECTION AND NOW I NEED TO VOMIT AND THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO AND SO MUCH TO SAY AND WE NEED TO CALL BILL CASSIDY AND NOW I’M COMPLETELY DYSREGULATED AND THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF CHILL MARCELLE WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU DON’T LET THESE BUTT MUNCHES BEAT YOU LIKE THIS AND WHERE THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO PUT ALL THIS RAGE GOD DAMN I’M HUNGRY BRING IT MIGRA I WILL FUCK YOU UP.
Sound familiar?
I let those mother fuckers win this week—not at a systemic level, but on a personal level. I let them in my head and in my heart and allowed them to scramble my brains and spread me too thin and render me useless. Which is exactly what they want. They want us to burn out to the point of exhaustion so that we just give up and give in and let them rule the world. In fact, it’s not just what they want, it’s their actual playbook:
The strategy has existed since at least 2018, when the former Trump administration strategist Stephen K. Bannon boasted of the ability to overwhelm Democrats and any media opposition through a determined effort to “flood the zone” with initiatives.
This time, the flood is bigger, wider and more brutally efficient. As President Trump begins his second term, he has enacted his agenda at breakneck speed as part of an intentional plan to knock his opponents off balance and dilute their response.
Firing inspectors general. Sweeping clemency for Jan. 6 defendants. Investigations of perceived enemies. A federal hiring freeze. Moving to end birthright citizenship. An immigration crackdown. Terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Revoking security clearances.
On Tuesday, just when Democrats thought they might come up for air, news broke that Mr. Trump had ordered a freeze on trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, prompting a new round of outrage.
One of the architects of Mr. Trump’s rapid-pace strategy is Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff for policy, who has pushed the flood-the-zone tactic. Mr. Miller believes that those he regards as Mr. Trump’s enemies have limited bandwidth for opposition, and he has told people that the goal is to overwhelm them with a blitz of activity.
I fell for that shit for the entirety of his first term and I am so annoyed I fell for it again. They played me. Hard. They knocked me on my ass and I tell you what: it’s not going to happen again. I am back on my feet. I am joyful. I have found my north star. And I am determined as hell.
Now listen, this isn’t just some find your joy bullshit. This is a find your resolve. Find your purpose. Find your unwavering center of gravity. Because once you find it, you’ll realize that it stands alone. It cannot be rushed or frazzled. It cannot be shamed and it cannot help but delight in the world around you. But best of all, it is independent of those butt munches, and they cannot take it away from you.
I was reminded of this by my brilliant friend, Joseph Pierce, who delights me on a regular basis with his beautiful words and insights via his newsletter, Indigiqueer Confidential (I highly recommend you subscribe).
Yesterday, he published an essay about the palpable (and new) fear of cis white men around him (also maybe something to delight in? jk 😉) and his approach to the current political context:
I used to destroy myself over what I perceived as this political machine’s constant desire to erase, belittle, demean, in short, to eliminate me from the world.
I decided, slowly, that my work—whatever that is—the work of care, of kinship. The work of being in relation. Doing art. Doing gatherings. Doing decolonial love. All that work doesn’t depend on the spasms of an empire on the verge of collapse
…speaking for myself, I want to write and do the work of gathering and loving and fighting and growing tobacco and praying and finding the ways to say things that need to be said. I want to support those who have supported me. I want to build reciprocity. I want to build freedom. I want to do all this whether or not the government is defunding people to death. I want to do all this not because all of a sudden there is an urgency to it, but because it is the thing I know is the right thing to do. The right way to be.
I’m not so naive as to think that coalitions and political organizing and resistance doesn’t need to be responsive to its context, but I do think that having such a myopic view of the politics of this dystopian now leads people to forget that there are systems and forms of resistance that have endured and will continue to endure long after this political cycle, this presidency, this country, this empire.
When I think of this kind of sturdiness, I think of my Maw Maw. I think of how strong she was, how thick her legs were, how I always felt safe in her presence. I think of how she endured forced assimilation as a Cajun child. I think of how she traveled the world. I think of how she dedicated her life to service as a nurse, as a mother, as a provider of care for her entire family down the bayou. I think of how she rooted roses and lilies and crowns of thorn. I think of how she rooted me.
My legs are just as thick as hers and I’ve been doing my little perimenopausal strength training every single day. I am strong. I am ready to throat punch a nazi if I have to. I am ready to run away from ICE and trick them into wasting their time and resources if I have to. I am ready to call every single representative I have and tell them to do their fucking job if I have to. Because I’ve got my Maw Maw’s spirit coursing through my blood and her handwriting etched into my arm and literally nothing can stop me.
You know how I know that? Because despite my little spiral this week (and some pretty incessant and spontaneous crying), I have been delighted as fuck for the last two weeks. Inexplicably delighted. And it didn’t even begin with the snow! It began the night of the inauguration when I was watching Jeopardy at my neighborhood bar. I got an answer right and celebrated by doing the Arsenio Hall fist pump—something I have never done before in my life. My arm independently just came out swinging and delighted not only myself, but also my sweet friend Caitlin, inspiring a group fist pump dance sesh. And that’s what I’m going to hang on to (here’s a video of said group fist pump dance sesh so you can hold onto it too).
Delighting in the world around you is the first step to making it a better place. It gives you something to fight for. And if you are having some trouble finding your delight, here are a few suggestions:
go outside
go for a walk
read Mary Oliver
listen to the new Bad Bunny album
dance while listening
spend time with friends IN REAL LIFE
spend time with puppies
have an Arsenio Hall fist pump dance sesh with your friends
limit your doomscrolling
set boundaries for your news intake
allow yourself time to unplug
perform one tangible civic action
Good news! I can help you on that last one! As I’m sure you know by now, RFK Jr. is up for Health and Human Services Secretary and our very own Senator Bill Cassidy is considered a swing vote! Call him and tell him to VOTE NO ON RFK Jr. You can use this script (there are also links there for all kinds of calls you can make) and remember, this is not a test. They won’t ask you questions or challenge you. They will just tally your request. In fact, I got an answering machine AND I recorded it so you can watch me be super awkward and realize this by no means needs to be a smooth operation. It just needs to get done.
Here is his number:
DC Office: (202) 224-5824
New Orleans Office: (504) 838-0130
Here is me being super awkward:
Now go forth and be awkward and delighted!
NEW NAH BRAH MONTHLY ZOOM SERIES (aka the nah brah prepare & protect plan):
Rundown: Every month, I will be offering one Political Shitstorm Prep and one Community Zoom. The Political Shitstorm Prep is a one-time course for you to take to get your political house in immediate order. The Community Zoom is an ongoing gathering that you are invited to participate in every month where we will commiserate and continue our civic training. It is highly recommended that you take the Political Shitstorm Prep course first and then join in on the monthly community zooms. There will be no recordings, this is a live series.
Again, the Zoom series will only be available to paid subscribers of this newsletter, because I also have to protect myself and this community from the trolls. They are coming out more and they are getting scarier. You can become a paid subscriber for $5/mth or $50/yr. If you have a financial hardship, please feel free to email me and we will work it out.
Political Shitstorm Prep (PREPARE):
A quick shitstorm prep sesh to make sure you have your basic political shit in order, including: voter registration, knowing who your elected officials are, reassessing where you're getting your local news/information, getting familiar with local advocacy networks, discovering volunteer opportunities, subscribing to reliable local news sources, etc. This will be a community-based, crowd-sourced information session led by Marcelle. Paid subscribers can sign up at the link below. Become a paid subscriber to access the link.
The first Political Shitstorm Prep will be held on February 11 at 7 pm. You can also sign up for March or April at the link below.
Community Zoom (PROTECT):
This is a space where we will get together once a month to build our community and make it less dependent on social media. We will talk, learn, unlearn, and apply practical tips to our civic engagement. This is where we will start to create the world we want to live in. Also, this is where we will see each other's faces! Paid subscribers can sign up at the link below. Become a paid subscriber to access the link.
The first Community Zoom will be held on February 12 at 7 pm. You can also sign up for March and April at the link below.
We got this. We got us.